Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kathryn Galimi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kathryn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s go back in time a bit – can you share a story of a time when you learned an important lesson during your education?

I went to Mercyhurst University where I studied under Tauna Hunter, our resilient department chair, who danced with Ballet West and built Merchurst’s dance department to the successful ballet program it is today. On my first day, Tauna sat my freshman class down and asked us to clasp our hands together. She then asked us to do it again with the opposite fingers in front of each other, leaving the rest of us to feel immediate discomfort. She went on to say that we must always “make room for change” and that throughout our careers this would need to be a lesson we remember. It was an infamous initiation around the studio space in a way where it became an inside joke the department had. Little did I know this advice would stick with me in every aspect of my life; being comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Moving to New York City was exciting, terrifying and exhausting. I immediately found 2 “survival jobs” to support my rent, groceries and utilities. This left just enough money (and time) to afford one or two dance classes and one voice lesson per week to keep up my training for any auditions I would go on. This was the most uncomfortable I have ever been. Soon this became my norm, as it does with every other aspiring performer in New York City. I would wake up at 4 am to prep for the day, work my job I had the cycling studio from 5-9am, run over to Pearl Studios for an audition until the afternoon, pick up the kid I babysat from school at 3 and hang with him until 7, and if I had time (an energy) run over to Broadway Dance Center for a 7:30 class. I became comfortable being uncomfortable all day long.

Starting The Dance Call was my next endeavor that made me feel like a fish out of water. Imposter syndrome would set in and I would field thoughts all day long like, “Am I really going to ask other artists to pay me for this service?” “What if no one signs up?” “What if no one else sees the value in this?” While this was terrifying, I knew that eventually this business would begin to feel comfortable, but that wouldn’t happen until I moved through all my discomfort.

This lesson has never been so apparent than it is when I ask artists to be vulnerable with me, and dance in their kitchen while I correct them and cheer them on from their computer. Once they work through the aches and pains of dancing in front of me they can feel free and empowered enough to step into a new space and dance in front of more!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into this industry at a very young age (as many ballet trained dancers do). I grew up at the ballet studio and soon found I also had a love for musical theatre. Since that love always came secondary to my commitments at the ballet studio I never thought of pursuing it on a professional level until I went to college and found myself more excited for my Jazz and Theatre classes. While I have and will always love ballet, musical theatre was a world that encapsulated my love for singing, ballet, jazz and even hip hop. It was a world where I didn’t have to choose a specialty.

Once fully immersed in the professional theatre world I started voice lessons where I could practice my second trade, singing. Here I found the training to be massively different from dance. I was the only one in the room with my teacher, and I was her only focus. I quickly realized how effective this was for my confidence and progress in singing and found it strange that dance never adopted this for vocalists and actors who want to start dance training. In that case, their main option was going to classes at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway. These are amazing studios, but can be extremely intimidating spaces to enter. When I first arrived in New York City and began training at these studios, it felt like everyone there knew each other, the instructor and the employees. If I, a professional dancer with a lifetime of training and a degree, could be intimidated stepping into these dance studios, how on earth would someone without the same background feel comfortable in these spaces. Especially when you are a vocalist who is used to training in a private setting and now you have to dance and move your body in front of a room full of your peers! Thus The Dance Call was born, a private online dance coaching business, made for theatre performers looking to begin or refine their training so they can confidently enter any class setting or audition room.

Because ballet has always been my primary focus, foundation and technique have been drilled into me as the some of the main pillars to success in a performance career. When mapping out the various needs my clients may have, I knew that knowing popular terminology and foundational training would be important, so I created my first program called “From the Top!” This service is where we talk about what foundation each client would like to focus in (ballet, jazz, modern etc) and build our focus from there, while also sprinkling in other dance forms since musical theatre requires knowledge of many styles. Once my clients feel comfortable with their bodies and their movement style they move into my second program, “5-6-7-8.” In this program we focus on building a dance reel to send to casting. This is where the client and I collaborate on how we want to show who they are. I highlight their strengths and make sure this movement is unapologetically them, so casting knows exactly who they are hiring. Once we have accomplished this, the focus is all about preparing clients for a traditional class/audition setting, leading us to the final program, “God I Hope I Get It.” (If you are a musical theatre fan you may have noticed that all my programs are named after some of the opening lines of the musical, A Chorus Line.) Here we warm up for 2o minutes and learn a new combination (choreography) every other week. Clients can of course start in what ever program they’d like to depending on past training they’ve had, but I have always been proud of the progression these three programs have.

I love the idea of implementing virtual dance lessons because it truly trains the brain. You don’t have a mirror or other students to copy or watch if you forget the combination. You also have limited space, therefore, you are able to learn spacial awareness, a useful tool when going to an audition with 50 other bodies in the room. Since the pandemic, casting often asks for the first round of an audition to be virtual, meaning performers will send in a 16-32 bar video of a song along with choreography casting has asked each artist to learn and film on their own. Learning from a video can be extremely difficult as you do not have the instructor in the room with you. You need to make sure your auditory learning is trained so when you hear dance terminology, your body knows exactly what to do. This takes time and is part of the reason why online coaching has been such an efficient way for my clients to progress.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I launched The Dance Call I was living and performing in Philadelphia. Much of my network was still in NYC and virtual lessons just made sense. Recently, I moved back to New York and it opened up the possibility of training with clients in person. I realize that not everyone can afford the time and money it takes to train with my privately, and some artists are already in the midst of auditions and may want more immediate practice in a traditional dance setting. Because of this, I started doing a Monthy Mover Class, where clients can train for an hour with me and do a live class. Here, we will warm up for 20 minutes and learn new choreography for the remainder of class. For context, “mover” is the industry standard term for an artist who is not proficient in dance and is often used to separate dance calls into two categories, the mover call and the dancer call. While it is not my favorite term for this group of artists, as every body that dances is a dancer, I find that this name helps to keep these classes attract performers who are roughly on the same level with one another. There are absolutely no seasoned dance professionals allowed in this class. This is an option that is more affordable and less frequent, but still allows clients to meet each other and get comfortable with their bodies and a studio setting.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I am continually unlearning is being apologetic for the expense of working with me. As a “starving artist” myself, asking other artists, who likely work 2-3 jobs to support their pursuit of this dream, to pay me to teach them to dance has been challenging. While my rates are low compared to what I would charge for private dance lessons with kids and pre-professionals, I know first hand how hard it can be to budget $40-50/week for training that you need in order to be successful in this industry. At the end of the day, this is a service performers need and it is an investment. I have seen the improvement in my students and I need to remember that mine is a service worth investing in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kathryngalimi.com/the-dance-call
• Instagram: @_thedancecall

Image Credits
First photo (headshot): Nicole Souza The dance call poster: Molly Coyne Illustrations Me in the backbend: Makayla Sprague